In this article I propose an online verification system for Higher Education Certificates and Universities in India.

India is the world’s seventh largest country by area and second most populous country with over 1.24 billion people. The higher education system in India is third largest in the world, next to USA and China. In India, the higher education (that is, education beyond 12 years of School education) is imparted through various Universities/Colleges/Institutes. As on now, as per University Grants Commission records, India has a total of 643 Universities and some Institutes of National Importance.

At present, there is no unified system for online verification for higher education certificates & universities in our country. Therefore, I propose to have such an e-governance system. The Prospective Employers/Students/Brides/Bridegrooms etc. find it very difficult to verify any certificate. Certificate verification process in most universities is still manual. Manual verification process normally takes around 2 weeks to 3 months in some universities. To get a certificate verified, one has to send a photocopy of the certificate along with a payment (around $15 to $25 per certificate) by courier to the university. Similarly, verification of Universities for its genuineness is very difficult.

I propose for an online verification system of Higher Education Certificates & Universities/Institutes, which will help in verifying the education certificates as well as universities.

The Proposed System – HERO Model

As per this proposed system, there should be a single Higher Education Regulator Office (HERO), which will manage this Online Verification System for Higher Education Certificates & Universities. All the Universities/Institutes will upload the data in prescribed format (not exactly the image of the certificates) to the web site of HERO (Higher Education Regulator Office). HERO officials will validate the data online (as per approved programs/courses of the University, sanctioned strength, etc.) and only after validation by HERO Officials, data will be available for access by the public. This way, fake universities/certificates can’t pass through the validation process of HERO.

We assume that under the proposed system, all Candidates must have a Unique ID (UID) Number (In India, it is like the Social Security Number of USA). Also, all universities/institutes are given a unique University/Institute Code/Number.

Online Verification system will provide the following facilities:

Verification of a Certificate:

Anybody can access the Online System of Verification of Certificates and Universities by accessing the official web site of the Higher Education Regulator Office. No registration/login is required to access this system. With the input of Certificate Code/Number, the system will provide the details pertaining to the Certificate such as Candidate’s Name, Roll Number, Date of Birth, Father’s/Husband’s Name, Candidate’s Photo, Exam. Name, Month/Year of passing, University/Institute Name/Code, Candidates UID No, Marks/Grades Secured.

With the input of University Code/Number, the system will provide the details pertaining to the University/Institute such as University/Institute Name, Address, Phone Numbers, Email IDs, URL, Courses/Programs offered & no. of seats.

With the input of Candidate’s UID Number, the system will display his Name, Address and all the Certificates issued to him. Alternately, with the input of Name & Date of Birth, the system will display the Name, Date of Birth, UID Number & the Certificates issued to him.

Such an online verification system of Certificates and Universities will help in developing a better, efficient and transparent system leading to world class e-governance platform in higher education system in India.” – Srihari Subudhi – New Delhi, India

“The Brazilian Federal Government does not benefit the interaction capabilities of Twitter to engage with the public or with other Latin American leaders , according to Twiplomacy , annual study by Burson – Marsteller which analyzes the presence and activity of the global leaders in microblogging .

According to the study , all South American countries except Suriname have a presence on Twitter . Most presidents have personal accounts on the microblogging and communicate with each other frequently. An exception is the president of Brazil , Dilma Rousseff .

According to the report , though popular among their peers , Dilma Rousseff keeps your inactive account since it was elected in late 2010.

The Brazilian leader is presented as a ” perfect example of how the world leaders discover Twitter during the election campaign and then abandon their followers , once elected . ”

On the other hand , the Foreign Ministry is quoted as an example of efficient use of Twitter by public institutions . The profile is the most connected between the ministries of foreign affairs of Latin American countries , has more than 80,000 followers and public interest content frequently , and share content in other formats , such as photos and posts on the official blog .

The study results show that Twitter has established itself as a tool of political integration and global diplomatic relations , but that Brazil is losing a great opportunity to expand the dialogue with the population and its international partners .

“Twitter is a platform agile and direct , used actively used by 19.2 million Brazilians . The companies have already discovered the power and reach of the tool . Leaders around the world use it for dialogue with citizens and with their peers in other countries . It is an opportunity for the Brazilian government to talk to people and partners , “said Cely Giraldes Carmo , digital strategist for Burson- Marsteller Latin America .

Among Latin American leaders present on Twitter , Rafael Correa of ​​Ecuador, is what most interacts with his followers . Around 83 % of all tweets Correa are responses to messages from other Twitter users .

The report also shows that Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is the most followed among the leaders of Latin America , with over 2.1 million followers .

Already the government has considered the most prolific in the region is the one that belongs to the presidential administration in Venezuela , with more than 41 tweets per day , on average .

Overall, the study shows that 77 % of leaders have a profile on the social network and 68 % are connected with other heads of state and official profiles world .

The ” Twiplomacy ” examined profiles 505 153 different countries. U.S. President Barack Obama is the leader most followed on Twitter , with 33 million followers .

Second is Pope Francisco, which is followed by seven million people in their profiles in nine different languages. The Pope’s Tweets are results on average 11,000 times , making the Pope the global leader of the most influential social network .” – Ester Cristina Alves Da Silva – São Paulo, Brazil

“I would like to think that the data available in my government is secured from external threats of technology abuse, bully hackers and unauthorized users. If a whole batch of citizen’s personal information and their activities were leaked to outsiders, would the government relish informing the public for dread of reprisal and loss of reputation? How can information ever be truly safe? And safe from what for that matter? One can only hope that the information available with anyone stays in its rightful place. It is not the issue about the personal information or data being safe, it’s a question of the person being safe.

In other instances, citizen’s data and information is shared and easily retrieved within various government agencies and departments since there is a central database facilitating storage for work purpose. However the government and its agencies in my country have a competing influence of networks of non-governmental, non-critical businesses in almost every sector of the economy, such as food, retailing, tourism, banking, education, insurance and healthcare. This is persuasive to the point of sending many small-medium private enterprises to their graves. So the amount of personal information that trickles down from governmental to non-governmental organizations become difficult to determine and track. Moreover, there is no stopping any corrupted government officials from forming a syndicate to sell and disclose personal information to others.

Although I’m unsure if such information ever sees the light in the public, there are specific legislation to prevent personal information from being accessed, scrutinized and misused by other people or business organizations that have no proper rights to obtain such information in the first place. Yes, in fact in my country has just enacted the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) in 2012. Prior to this enactment, there was no formal law governing the protection of personally identifiable information. The collection, use and disclosure of personal data in Singapore was regulated to a certain extent by blobs of laws including common law, sector-specific legislation and various self-regulatory or co-regulatory codes, such as the SPAM Control Act, or Do Not Call Act. The SPAM Control Act requires any person who sends unsolicited commercial electronic messages in bulks to comply with certain obligations. Although this is quite difficult since much of the bulk of data is global in nature, the regulatory office does educate one on how to minimize the bulk of such infiltrates. One can filter, block, resend, blacklist, reset servers, do civil recourse.

There are other individual legislative acts relative to industrial sectors, e.g. banking, retail etcetera. In general the PDPA contains the general rules with respect to protection of personal data and the rules relating to the collection, use, disclosure, access to of personal data. There is a setup commission, i.e. the PDPC, is empowered to issue formal reprimand to a culpable organization to stop collecting, using or disclosing personal data, and impose financial penalties of up to $1 million.

Thus, such legislations enacted ensure data protection behavioural compliance to some extent, although each citizen and corporation can do more to contribute and comply with these acts.” – Patrick Sim – Singapore, Singapore

I have used an online public service in Botswana, my home country. The online public service I used is referred to as the Integrated Procurement Management System (IPMS). The Integrated Procurement Management System (IPMS) is an initiative of the Botswana Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board, a Parastatal body here in Botswana. The primary objective of the IPMS is to improve the public procurement process by automating procurement system. The automation of the procurement system of the PPADB also envisages improving service delivery of the PPADB.

IPMS is a web-based application on the Microsoft Platform with MW SQC as data base and accessible through the internet through web browser. The production servers are hosted at the Main Site at PPADB and Disaster Recovery Servers which are hosted by the Department of Information Technology.

2.0. WHAT I USED

I once used the Contractor registration Module of the Integrated Procurement Management System. The Contactor registration module is a Web-based platform where all contractors intending to do business with the Procurement Entities of the Republic of Botswana are required to use. This module helps in facilitating online registration of Contractors on IPMS.

3.0.HOW IT WORKS

3.1. The Contractor Registration Module.

All contactors intending to do business with the Procurement Entities of the Republic of Botswana are required to register with PPADB. This Module facilitates online registration of contractors on the IPMS.

3.2. Accessing CRM

Remember that IPMS is Web-based PCs on a network. To access IPMS, you open a web browser and in the address bar of the browser, enter the portal web address or IP address of the server where application is deployed to create a space for IPMS login screen to appear.

4.0. CRATING A LOGIN

Here the contractor enters the login details. If you are new, it is mandatory to provide the following login details, Field name, User ID, Password, Confirm password, Security question, Answers.

4.1. Login.

After contractor fills and save the new User Registration page, system sends an E-Mail to the primary contact E-Mail address mentioning his/her login information. Using those credentials he/she can login into IPMS.

4.2. Filling up Basic Profile.

The contractor will, after login, click on Basic profile. The basic profile form opens on the screen, where the contractor will follow the screen commands.

4.3. Selection of Division (Works/Service/Supplies).

Once the basic registration is completed, then the user can start contractor registration process for specific category and division. The contractor then clicks the Add New Application button to create new application. This screen also displays the list of registration application created by the user with the current status. The system displays the page to select the Division. The registration process page will display list of the Division/Discipline under the Process Selection. User has to enter the registration reference number and select the Division/Discipline and Click on the Proceed button to initiate the process.

4.3.1. Selection of Business Type.

This form displays selection of Business Type. Based on the selection of the option on this page, the relevant form appears to the user in the next screen to fill. From there the user selects the option from the drop down box and clicks on the save button. Then click on the Proceed to next Task button to proceed to filling up relevant forms.

4.4. COMPANY REGISTRATION FORM.

If the contractor has selected the type of business as Company then he/she has to fill the company registration form as it appears on the screen. After filling the form, the contractor clicks on save/update to proceed.

4.5. REGISRATION OF TRADE FORM.

If the contractor selects business type as trade then he/she has to fill the Trade registration form as it appears on the screen. After filling the form on the screen, click save/update to proceed.

5.0. FILLING DIVISION/DISCIPLENE SPECIFIC FORMS.

5.1. Filling Division Specific Forms.

If the user selects contractor at the time of filling basic profile then he/she will get the forms for contractor in line with Division/Discipline selection. The contractor then fills the details as instructed by the form appearing on the screen.

6.0. CONCLUSION

After going through the necessary steps of registering online, the user has to click on the button “Submit Contractor Registration Application” to complete the registration process. The Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board will then assess the application and accordingly respond online. ” – Mpho Kasoka – Ghanzi, Botswana

Disclaimer

The statements, findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this blog and in all contents herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of, or are endorsements from the United Nations. The United Nations is not responsible for and hereby expressly disclaims any and all liability for any and all damages or loss resulting from the use of any third party website accessed via this website. These links are provided purely for reference and the convenience of users. All disclaimers apply in respect of any third-party website and other content-providers as well.